The roots of Detroit's raucous reputation as a sports town go deep. Seventy years ago, Tigers fans pelted St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Joe "Ducky" Medwick with garbage during the seventh game of the 1934 World Series. Provoked by Medwick's mettle on the bases - he had just spiked a Detroit player - the crowd took aim. Bottles, shoes and rotten tomatoes flew at Medwick for 20 minutes. Enough, said baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who ejected the Cardinals Hall of Famer "for his own good."

DETROIT - In the aftermath of the Orioles' American League Division Series win over the Detroit Tigers, we wanted to share some quotes that may not have made it into print. The Orioles had plenty to say. Here are some of the team's key figures talking about Sunday's series-clinching win: Buck Showalter on whether he could have predicted Nelson Cruz's impact: “Heavens, no. We just felt like it was a good fit where he was, not necessarily in his career, but his mindset going into the season. I think Nelson, not a vindictiveness, he knows things were self-inflicted. He really wanted to establish himself, reestablish himself, and we thought we could provide a real good opportunity for him, and the sky might be the limit. But we weren't that smart.

DETROIT -- We're three hours before game time, and by the looks of things, there should be a game here today. It's raw - 38 degrees at 10 a.m. And it's foggy, though that fog seems to be lifting some. The mound and home plate were covered. But the full tarp had been out in right field until 10:15, when the grounds crew placed it back over the infield. They then started shaking it again and rolling it up, so who knows? The Orioles will be a little bleary-eyed. Their plane didn't get into Detroit until about 3:15 a.m. The players didn't really get settled into the hotel until about 4, I was told.

An average audience of 4 million watched the Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers 12-3 on cable channel TBS Thursday night. That was up by 54 percent over the audience for a comparable league division series last year. The audience peaked at 5.4 million from 8:15 to 8:30 p.m., according to Nielsen figures supplied by TBS. About 17 percent of homes in Baltimore's cable TV universe were tuned to the game compared with 16 percent in Detroit. #sigshell { float: left; width: 320px; height: 52px; margin: 20px 0px; display: block; }

Now that the city of Detroit declared that it was bankrupt ("Why Baltimore is not Detroit," July 21), let's take a look what are the main causes of this mess. Detroit had been governed for at least the past 20 years exclusively by Democrats. Not a single Republican has held an elected position there for the last two decades. The Democratic city leaders over-spent their operating budget repeatedly, excessively and certainly not carefully, which resulted in eventual collapse of all services and promises to the residents of this once prosperous city.

At last, conditions appear almost ideal for Congress to demand substantially greater fuel efficiency from cars and light trucks. Longtime advocates of such policy are in power, foreign and domestic sources of oil are increasingly fragile, evidence of transportation's role in global warming is indisputable and the average pump price of gasoline is creeping again toward $3 a gallon. Yet overcoming the combined resistance of automakers and autoworkers and their congressional allies in both parties remains difficult.

DETROIT -- Orioles manager Buck Showalter said before Friday's game that he wasn't quite sure who would be his starter Saturday night against the Tigers here at Comerica Park. But all signs point to left-hander Zach Britton, who joined the team in Detroit Friday, getting the nod. A move to recall Britton from Triple-A Norfolk wouldn't be made until before Saturday's game, when Showalter could gauge whether rookie right-hander Steve Johnson is still an option to start. Johnson, recalled earlier this week to provide depth to the bullpen, threw two innings in the Orioles' 6-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night.

In his recent commentary, Paul Davies laid out the ludicrousness of Maryland politicians' accelerated push to expand gambling in the state ("Gambling: still morally bankrupt," Aug. 23). They don't even have revenue coming in from all the currently authorized casino venues, yet they can't seem to legalize more sites fast enough. Next will be Internet gambling, so that people can have a couple of drinks at home and then make stupid decisions with a couple of clicks that impair them financially for years.

DETROIT -- Officials from the leading industrial democracies completed their first jobs conference yesterday, agreeing on the need to improve education, training and worker skills to combat unemployment but failing to bridge a crucial gap between the United States and Europe.European delegations showed no sign they were willing to take the politically risky step of reducing their traditional, expensive support for social safety nets, which, in many cases, make a lifetime on government unemployment benefits more financially attractive than work on the lowest rung of the pay scale.

Defenseman Pat Kiernan and goalie Nolan Hickey anchored a strong defensive effort that surrendered just three goals in the first three quarters as the Navy men's lacrosse team beat Detroit, 11-7, on Friday night at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. It's the first time Navy has started the season 2-0 since 2009, when the Midshipmen beat Virginia Military Institute (13-5) and Ohio State (8-6). "We had a big defensive effort tonight, and Nolan made some big saves for us," second-year Navy coach Rick Sowell said.

A day after the Detroit Tigers bullpen imploded in Game 1, the same cast of relievers was again responsible for an eighth-inning meltdown that sent the Orioles on the road with a 7-6 win and a 2-0 lead in the American League Division Series. "It's certainly a little tough to swallow," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. "When you have a three-run lead going into the last couple of innings, you feel like you should get the job done. But we didn't. " The Tigers bullpen returns to Comerica Park after a disastrous two-day stretch in which it allowed 11 runs (10 earned)

Max Scherzer and the Detroit Tigers are in a 1-0 hole to the Orioles in the American League Division Series partly because the 2013 Cy Young Award winner spent the first two innings trying to avoid one on the mound. Scherzer and Orioles starter Chris Tillman began their windups in a similar spot early in the game, the Tigers starter said, creating a hole in the dirt near the pitching rubber. Scherzer compensated by taking a wider step off the rubber to start his motion, which threw his deliver out of whack and allowed the Orioles to pick up five of the seven hits they got off Scherzer - and three crucial early runs - before he adjusted.

Sitting at the media dais under the glare of television lights Thursday, left-hander Wei-Yin Chen made a prediction about his start Friday in Game 2 of the American League Division Series. “Well, I think tomorrow when I get up to the mound, I will be all sweating and nervous, just like I am now,” Chen said through interpreter Louis Chao as reporters in the room laughed. Chen then wiped his brow for effect. The Taiwanese left-hander has been through this before. In 2012, he allowed just one earned run in 6 1/3 innings to pick up the win in Game 2 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees.

Breaking down the American League Division Series matchup between the Orioles and Tigers, which begins Thursday at Camden Yards: How they got here Tigers: They had to scratch and claw to win their fourth straight American League Central title. The Tigers were 90-72 this season and didn't secure the division until they won Sunday. They may have the most formidable rotation in baseball, with the last three AL Cy Young Award winners. Their offense isn't shabby either, with the specter of two-time reigning AL Most Valuable Player Miguel Cabrera always looming.

Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis waited nine seasons, 1,365 games and 5,966 plate appearances for his first postseason at-bat. The 30-year-old admits he was rather nervous when he stepped to the plate around 6 p.m. Thursday before a soldout, screaming, orange-towel waving crowd at Camden Yards. “Absolutely, I'd be lying if I told you no,” Markakis said. “That is part of the game, part of the job. It's a matter of controlling your emotions and staying within yourself on the big stage.” Markakis watched three pitches, two balls and a strike, before taking his first hack, smacking a 93-mph fastball from Detroit Tigers starter Max Scherzer straight back to center field for his first postseason single - and the Orioles' first hit of the 2014 playoffs.

NEW YORK -- There was some consolation following the Orioles' 5-0 loss to the New York Yankees on Monday night. Following a night in which the Orioles managed just one hit, manager Buck Showalter was told that despite the loss, the club clinched home-field advantage in the American League Division Series with the Detroit Tigers' loss to the Chicago White Sox. With the AL East sealed, the Orioles are still chasing the league's best record --...

Detroit is the largest city ever to seek bankruptcy protection, so its bankruptcy is seen as a potential model for other American cities now teetering on the edge. But Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they'd otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans. Judge Steven W. Rhodes of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan is now weighing Detroit's plan to shed $7 billion of its debts and restore some $1.5 billion of city services by requiring various groups of creditors to make sacrifices.

TORONTO -- After working out for the Orioles at the club's spring training complex Monday, former closer Jim Johnson signed a minor league deal with the Detroit Tigers, according to an industry source. The Orioles also offered Johnson a minor-league deal, which included an out clause that would have given Johnson the opportunity to go elsewhere if he wasn't brought to the major leagues when rosters expand in September. The Orioles' bullpen didn't currently have a spot open for Johnson.